Thursday, April 04, 2013

One of the many things that made me uncomfortable after we
moved here was this insatiable desire I had for the seasons to change. No
matter how angsty I felt about it, the temperature refused to lessen and the
leaves refused to change. I’ve never lived in such a stubborn location.
Therefore, I rebelled. I decided I couldn’t handle it, and that Fall was a
necessity. If Pasadena couldn't provide, then we’d just have to go find it
somewhere else! Hmpf! We gave it a good chance and waited until October, but
Fall never showed. So, off we went!

I scouted out a farm about 1.5 hours east of us that had
apple picking, pumpkin picking, carriage rides, hiking, a petting zoo, a cider
press, hay bales to climb on, fresh pies to eat.. everything you need to remind
yourself that in some parts of the country, it really is Fall. We picked a
Saturday and went to find some Fall. And oh, was it wonderful.

Just the drive to the farm got me all worked up simply
because there were trees that were a different color!

See the clouds? We were high and they were low - beautiful!

This farm also had grove of Redwood trees (or possibly
Sequoias, because who can really remember these things? Oh.. maybe the kind of
people that don’t try to write things down 6 months after they happened? Well.)
and we got to walk right on through it.

It was just as magical as these things should be, for
everyone involved.

We didn't even tell him to.. a natural-born tree-hugger!

We found a cute little bench, so we took some cute little
pictures..

And even a family photo for the memory books!

We continued walking and found a lake! A lake of the
beautiful and picturesque sort, all too tempting for the Short-Leggeds among
us.

Well, we ran into a bit of trouble on our beautiful hike
when we got a flat tire. Turns out there are lots of little burrs to be had in
the woods that are not-little enough to poke holes right on through the inner
tubes. So we re-routed our hike out to the road and plodded along, steadily
uphill, wishing our children weren’t quite so heavy.

In an amazing turn of events, we discovered the local fire
station (that the road we were walking along ran right passed) was having a
bake sale! We didn’t buy anything, knowing that many good things awaited us
back at the farm, but the bake sale meant there was a fire truck out and open
for us to see! Aed was speechless with happiness. He loved it so much.

He was too excited to bother looking at the camera, so all the pictures look like this.

Then it was time for… apple picking! Joy of joys!

Did I mention it was a beautiful day?

We got to pick from any tree, and found that many trees had
some amazing-looking apples way up high and out of reach. Ian then patented a
new picking technique, pictured below.

Needless to say, the Picker loved it. The Non-Picker had
quite a good time as well. (The mysterious arm there belongs to Ian's coworker, Peter. He came along with us and made the trip that-much-more enjoyable!)

Unfortunately, the apple orchard was full of those pesky
burrs, so we flattened another tire, and by the time we got home, all three
were flat! I spent the next days picking burs and prickers out of the tires and
trying to fix up that buggy so we wouldn’t lose more inner tubes. Worth every
prick.

Then the petting zoo..

Adorable.

And the hay bales..

And the occasional nap..

Which all led to enjoying the spoils of a proper Fall in our
very own home where Fall refused to come.

I also supplemented with a spicy-sweet candle to give us the
right aroma. It was a beautiful thing.

One last picture that I think is adorable.. the munchkin
acting like he knows what to do with one of those.

He, of course, didn’t and got bored with it after about 5
seconds, but it made for a cute memory.

The day was absolutely wonderful, definitely one of my
favorite memories of our time here in CA. Ian and I reminded each other many
times of what a gift that day was, how thankful we were to have had it. It
honestly was sweet refreshment to our souls. I have learned that changes of
season are so important to me, figuratively and literally. I grow when
challenged with something new, and this stage of life brings mostly new things.
Change is good, welcomed or not, and I’m thankful that we had a time to revel
in the beauty of a changing season. Just remembering that special day brings a
sigh of relief and satisfaction. A good day.

The Team

"Ready, Team?"

I use it when we're leaving the house, buckled up in the car, starting a movie night, playing a game.. basically all the time. The phrase is my automatic check-in to make sure we're all on the same page. It's a happy accident that all our children's names begin with the letter 'A', so they are also often referred to as the A-Team.

This blog is about our team. We analyze, we hope, we ask, we get excited, we laugh, we're regular. Sort of. We are interested in what is real and think that just about everything is at least a little interesting. This is our place to play, to muse, and to remember.